Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has denied a clemency request from Christa Pike, the state's lone woman on death row, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday. Because apparently, the state's commitment to being tough on crime extends to waiting three decades to kill someone.

Pike, now 50, was just 18 when she and her then-boyfriend beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens. The murder, which involved a pentagram carved into Slemmer's chest, created a media frenzy in Knoxville in 1995. Pike had accused Colleen of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend, because nothing says "romantic rivalry" like ritualistic murder.

Two other residents at the camp later testified that Pike bragged about the murder before and after, and showed them a piece of Colleen's skull. A year later, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, while then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp - who was 17 at the time - received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. At the time of her incarceration, the 21-year-old Pike was the youngest person on death row, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

Pike may have one last chance at halting her execution: her attorneys have filed a petition with the US Supreme Court hoping for a last-minute reprieve. If it proceeds, Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Only 18 women have been executed in the US since the 1970s, compared to 1,663 men - so, you know, equality.

Governor Lee said in a statement: "After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike's request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene." Which is a fancy way of saying "thoughts and prayers, but make it lethal."

Pike's legal team had filed the clemency petition earlier this month, requesting that her death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Moving ahead with Pike's execution puts Tennessee "on singular footing," her attorneys said, as she would be the first person the state "executes in the modern death penalty era who was a teenager at the time of the offence." Attorneys Stephen Ferrell, Kelly Gleason and Randy Spivey said the governor's decision "leaves unanswered vital questions about Tennessee's execution protocol."

"With this decision, the State of Tennessee is ignoring what both science and our legal system have decided: an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, and 18 is too young to face execution," they said in a statement on Monday. Because neuroscience is apparently optional when it comes to vengeance.

Pike has a documented history of childhood sexual abuse, abandonment and neglect. Her lawyers believe that if she was found guilty of the same crime today as a teenager, she would not receive a death sentence. "The 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists," her attorneys said. "Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions, receives proper treatment for her mental illness, and provides for and guides fellow incarcerated women."

In the years since her sentencing, her defence team have uncovered details about her childhood that they say the jury never had the chance to consider. Meanwhile, Colleen's mother has insisted she wants Pike's execution to move forward so that her daughter "finally can be resting." Pike is scheduled to be executed on 30 September after years of failed appeals. So, barring a last-minute intervention from the Supreme Court, Tennessee will make history - just not the kind anyone should be proud of.